Australian Sentinel tank sees action in WWII

http://www.armytankmuseum.com.au/sentinel.htm
http://www.mheaust.com.au/Aust/Research/Sentinel/sentinel13.htm

This thread is inspired by the previous thread on the Kiwi corrugated iron tank- now, WI the Australian army utilised the AC1 Sentinel in action by early 1943 in combat against the Japs in New Guinea, instead of phasing it out after US tanks became more available ? Or maybe in such a scenario as a Jap invasion of northern Australia (a la the chapter in Tsouras' RISING SUN after a Jap victory at the Coral Sea & the fall of Moresby), so that the 1st Australian Armd Div is rushed into action equipped with the Sentinel ? Would the Sentinel's performance in combat have been similar to the CAC Boomerang's, the Owen gun's, or other domestically-produced weapons ?

btw, I haven't seen the AC1 Sentinel which was on display at the War Memorial in Canberra- it must be in their storage area...
 
btw, I haven't seen the AC1 Sentinel which was on display at the War Memorial in Canberra- it must be in their storage area...
[pedant]Its an (or rather, the only fully completed production example) AC3 outside the War Memorial.[/pedant]

ETA: Performance of the tank itself is likely to be no problem (though the AC3's 25 pounder is preferable to the AC1's little door knocker); the real issue is more how crews and tactics work.
 
Its a pretty good tank overall.

Against the Japanese, even the 2pdr. gun was suitable for dealing with Japanese armour, however the lack of a decent HE round (they were avail. as I understand but were generally not issued and lacked a decent explosive punch anyway), however the 25pdr. gun version would have been great.

Maybe we could see them shipped to North Africa/Med to equipe Australian armoured forces there. Maybe the US isn't so generous in giving us tanks and equipment for that to happen?
 
Its a pretty good tank overall.

Against the Japanese, even the 2pdr. gun was suitable for dealing with Japanese armour, however the lack of a decent HE round (they were avail. as I understand but were generally not issued and lacked a decent explosive punch anyway), however the 25pdr. gun version would have been great.

Maybe we could see them shipped to North Africa/Med to equipe Australian armoured forces there. Maybe the US isn't so generous in giving us tanks and equipment for that to happen?

hmmm, I was initially considering the AIF 1st Armd Div being sent to the UK to join in the invasion of Normandy, but the AC1 Sentinel at least would've been chopped up by any Panzers encountered- esp the Tiger- though the AC3 with the 25-ldr would've been similar to the Sherman Firefly for firepower & survivability...

yeah, just a pity the Sentinel never got to see action as a domestically-produced Australian weapon, similar to the CAC Woomera light bomber...
 
Sentinel

Being attached to an Aussie Light Horse unit, I agree it would have been awesome to see the Sentinel in use, especially with the 25pder. It would have creamed through anything the Japanese had.
What would worry me though is if, due to the pressures from above, they got used in penny-packets as happened in New Guinea.
 
I'll echo the 25pdr comments. Wouldn't the engines/transmissions/transfer couplings cause problems in action?
 
Yes, the field gun on the Sentinel would be very useful.

I think that all this WI needs is for the AIF to have an explicit self-propelled gun doctrine in the last battles of the Pacific War (which could mean Sentinels in combat, but not as tanks?)

Melvin Loh said:
hmmm, I was initially considering the AIF 1st Armd Div being sent to the UK to join in the invasion of Normandy, but the AC1 Sentinel at least would've been chopped up by any Panzers encountered- esp the Tiger- though the AC3 with the 25-ldr would've been similar to the Sherman Firefly for firepower & survivability

The armoured division was disbanded in late '43, and reformed into a brigade group, which in turn was disbanded in late '44 (another armoured brigade not from the original 1st continued until the last year of the war).

As these were AIF units they could have been sent overseas north of the equator--D-Day failing could have provided a strong incentive for Curtin to send the 1st Armoured Brigade Group to the Med to support GB in her hour of greatest embarrassment (as it wasn't doing anything in WA, and wasn't a jungle warfare infantry outfit as the 9th, 7th & 6th divisions were by this time), much like veterans of the 3rd New Zealand were sent to reinforce the 2nd Division in Italy.

Okay, as interesting as that scenario is it doesn't see Sentinels going into action...
 

Markus

Banned
The tank is ready for production in the second half of 1942 at the earliest. By that time it really makes no sense to use Australia´s limited resources to build tanks. The Sentinel is technically superior to a light M3 but the M3 is superior to almost all Japanese tanks and available in vast numbers.
 
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